Fallout: A path best not traveled
by Sephiro117
Summary: The Capital Wasteland is a harsh unforgiving place, It has ways of changing people and no one knows this better than the Lone Wanderer, but soon another figure shall rise from the vault. Will they be able to survive the Wasteland or be consumed by it?
1. Another day in the Capital Wasteland

AN: After what seemed like an eternity away Sephiro117 has returned. This fanfic shall be my first after a several year hiatus, let's see it if I still have some creativity left. I do not own Fallout only my original creations.

"Keep walking!" the man shouted as he shoved the barrel of his hunting rifle into the young girl's back forcing her to continue the long march across the barren desert known as the Capital Wasteland. It was late in the day and the young girl was completely exhausted as the sun beamed unforgiving rays down on her head, her blue jumpsuit was hardly recognizable under all the grime and dirt with only the numbers '101' as the only clue as to who she was. Amata Almodovar was this poor unfortunate girl's name and she has been forced into the slave trade as of earlier today. She looked ahead of her and in the distance she could see what resembled a ramshackle of variable refuse forming some type of compound with a billboard sticking above it reading.

_PARADISE FALLS_

Amata had no idea what this place was or why the gunman had brought her here, but the uneasy feeling in her stomach told her it was not a place she would want to be. As she was led inside she thought back to her home, the vault-tec vault of 101, how it was nothing like this place and how she would give anything to be back in the cool, underground bunker. She was quickly ripped away from her thoughts as her and her kidnapper entered the compound. It didn't take long for the slavers of Paradise Falls took notice at the gunman's prize, a man with an assault rifle ruefully grabbed her by the wrist. "Hey, look what we got here, a genuine vault dweller!" he shouted. Amata quickly ripped herself away and in doing so fell into another man's waiting arms. "Oh yeah and she smells _REAL_ nice." the slaver said after taking a long whiff then shove her to the ground. "Looks like we're going to have some fun tonight!" he said getting ready to undo his pants. Horrified at the mere thought of what could happen, she started backing away as they were starting to make their advance, until the man with the hunting rifle fired a round into the air. Causing the two men to halt in their tracks

"Keep your damn pants on!" He barked, "No one is touching this girl until I speak to Mr. Jones, I don't want **ANY** of you fuckers '_devaluing_' my merchandise." He demanded, "Merchandise? Who the hell do you think you are?" Amata finally spoke up. Her captor merely looked at her with a smirk and turned away as he introduced the butt of his rifle to her temple knocking her out cold.

"What happened to not wanting to 'devaluing' the merchandise?" one of the slavers mocked.

"Shut the fuck up and get your boss." He retorted.

Moira Brown, owner of Craterside Supplies, was wiping down her counter when the door to her shop was suddenly kicked opened letting in a beam of sunlight, along with a long menacing shadow of a figure wearing black combat armor with a wastehound hood and armed with a combat shotgun. Before she could even greet the individual her head exploded from the violent blast of his shotgun splattering the wall behind her in blood and bits and pieces of skull…

….."Helloooo? Is anybody in there?"

It was the unmistakable voice of Moira Brown snapping the Lone Wanderer from his twisted fantasy, he had just gotten back from yet again 'helping' her with her projects, this time testing out a bug repellent which in fact turned out to attract them instead, ranging from Bloatflies to Giant Ants and Radscorpions had came in swarms as soon as he sprayed the aerosol.

"So… how did it work?" Moira said barely able to withhold her excitement, if the Lone Wanderer was not wearing his hood she would've known the answer.

"It didn't work." Was his only reply, Moira seemed a bit disappointed by the fact mumbling about how she shouldn't have added ant pheromones to the chemical concoction. Never the less she quickly dismissed the notion and paid her 'Helper' with caps. Just before the Lone Wanderer could turned to leave she decided to try and strike up a conversation.

"Hey there were some slavers in the area around Springvale, did you happen to run into them?" she asked.

"No" was the only replied she got from the hooded figure, with a slight hint of annoyance.

"hmmm, I heard they manage to catch another poor soul not far from there, some people say that it was another one of them vault dwellers." Moira paused and as if she had gotten yet another 'bright' idea she added. "Maybe it's someone you know?"

With a quick turn around the Lone Wanderer was at her counter staring at her through the two glass peepholes in his hood. "How long ago was this?" he demanded.

"It was about half a day ago, while you was away." She told him, a bit surprised at his reaction time and before she knew it he was already out of the door running down the ramp heading for the giant metal gates of Megaton.

Amata awoke with a splitting headache, her vision was blurred and a horrible stench assaulted her nose which made her headache even worst. Once her eyes focused she looked around for the source of the smell and soon found herself face to face with yet another face with what appeared to be a two headed cow with only a chain link fence separating her from it. She quickly scampered back and fell against something soft and squishy. Amata had turned to see what she had run into and came face to face with what looked like a rotting corpse. It wasn't until it spoke did it dawned on her that it was alive. She let out an ear piercing scream.

"Typical smoothskin reaction." The corpse chided. "At least watch where you're running to next time." He added in a raspy rough voice. Amata slowly backed away from him.

"No, you're not dead, and No, you're not in Hell." A voice came from behind her.

Amata quickly turned and saw an African American man in a clean dressed red suit standing next to the two headed cow. He seemed to stand out from all the grime and mud her prison was filled with.

"And No I can't let you go, for you my dear, you are going to make me a VERY rich man." He added as if he was reading her thoughts.

"Who are you?" was the only question Amata could come up with.

The man seemed almost insulted that he would have to introduce himself. "I forget, Vault Dwellers don't know anything about the outside world, only the little happenings within their little vault. Well my young naïve girl,." he paused for dramatic effect "I am **THE** Eulogy Jones." He stepped back and held his arms out stretched "and this is _**MY WORLD**_!" he added.

Amata merely looked at him and thought he was insane as she still didn't know why he thought himself so important. The looked on her face told Eulogy that his 'presentation' had no effect on her but it did provide some entertainment to the ghoul behind her as he laughed, letting his arms slap his side he muttered something along the lines of stupid vault dwellers and he turned to leave, before exiting the slave pin he paused.

"In case you're wondering, that thing around your neck is a bomb." He said, Amata hadn't noticed it until he mentioned it, she felt around her neck and could feel the hard metal collar with something strapped to it.

Eulogy pulled a device out of his pocket. " and this is the detonator." He said as he pushed a button.

Amata could hear a faint beeping coming from behind her, she turned to see the corpse struggling to take its collar off, then suddenly his head completely burst sending blood, bones, and gray matter everywhere, some of bodily fluids even landed on Amata, in shock she could only stare at the now headless corpse laying in front of her, a few seconds passed before her brain clicked back on and she reacted letting out yet another bloodcurdling scream.

Eulogy merely smiled to himself as he walked away.

'_Now that's how you leave a lasting impression' _He thought to himself

AN: Thanks for reading I will be uploading more soon as I tend to write these things out beforehand so it's more a matter of time for me to type it up.


	2. Two tickets away from Paradise

AN: Had time to post another chapter enjoy!

The sun was beginning its ascension above the horizon when the Lone Wanderer made his way to Paradise Falls, he had stopped as soon as the entrance was in sight, and took great care not to be spotted. Every ounce of being in his body told him this was stupid, that this was a bad idea, and that this wasn't his problem.

'_People get enslaved on a daily bases. It's the way of the waste.'_ He tried to reason with himself.

'_This is someone from where you grew up, this could be someone you know could you really live with yourself if you just left them to their fate?'_ another thought countered.

Torn between himself the Lone Wanderer decided on a wait and see tactic. This turned out to be profitable as he observed several groups enter the compound, one group were clad in leather armor, another were dressed in the unmistakable clothing marking them as Raiders and the rest seemed to be other slavers wishing to trade their wares. Their arrival had complicated things dramatically, what could possibly bring these groups together in one place.

'_So we go in guns blazing, grenade slinging, body dropping badasses.'_ He thought to himself.

"No, to many and not enough bullets, also risk killing the objective." He answered to no one but himself.

'_Well you got to get in there somehow and without letting them find out who you are, not to mention getting that bomb collar off.' _He reasoned.

"One thing at a time, we get there when we get there." Again answering to no one but himself.

Once satisfied with all that he learned and after seeing no one else showing up, he decided on a plan of action.

"Damn it's hot out here." A Slaver complained as he was guarding the entrance to Paradise Falls he noticed a hooded figure walking towards him from the emptiness of the wasteland. Once within ear shot he called out to him.

"Hey, You what the fuck you doing out here?" he shouted.

"I merely wanted to see what was going on, seems all you slavers are having a party in there." The hooded figure answered back.

"This here's no party, it's a auctioning, Eulogy Jones got himself one of them vault people, very rare fresh meat and stupid too, don't know a damn thing about what's going on. Whoever gets the girl is in for some good old fun." The slaver laugh at his own sick thought.

'_So, it's a girl they're selling…god I hope it's not who I think it is.'_ The Lone Wanderer thought as he mentally went through a list of the female vault inhabitants, there weren't many after his last visit to vault 101 and it seemed one girl was a higher candidate than the rest.

"So can anyone attend this, Auction?" The Lone Wanderer asked.

"As long as you got something to trade, weapons, caps, other slaves, but let me tell you Jones isn't letting this one go for cheap." The slaver again laughing at his own thoughts.

'_Looks like you going to have to hit up your stash if you want this to work.' _He concluded,

"Alright I'm in, when does this auction start?" He asked.

"In an hour, maybe less, those damn Raiders are a fucking pain in the ass." The slaver answered. That gave the Lone Wanderer plenty of time to get what he needed and come back.

Amata was tired, her eyes were heavy, she couldn't sleep at all during the night before. The images of the talking corps, and it's head exploding from it's body plagued her mind. Even now every time she dose off she would see that image shocking her from her sleep.

"Alright, Showtime! My little money maker." Eulogy jones said opening the gate to her prison. She was too tired to put up a resistance as he grabbed her by her arm and led her to a platform. There he chained her to a post and put her on display for his clients to see. Amata was a complete mess, her red hair was matted to her face, caked in mud and blood that wasn't hers. Still wearing the same filthy blue jumpsuit from yesterday.

"hmmm, maybe I should've had Clover clean her up." Eulogy said in hindsight,

"Hey when the hell is this damn thing going to start!" a Raider shouted.

"Yeah we been here for hours, the fuck is going on here! We doing this or not!" another shouted.

Annoyed Eulogy turned and face the crowd, "Alright you fucking degenerates!" He shouted, he paused and recomposed himself and cleared his throat.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, Raiders and Slavers. I bring you all here to present a once in a lifetime opportunity. Standing before you know is a genuine vault dweller!" He exclaimed in his salesman pitch.

"How the hell do we know you didn't just put a vault jumpsuit on one of those wastelanders." A slaver cut in.

"If you let me finish asshole! I will tell you!" Jones shot back. He continued his pitch by grabbing Amata's face. "As you can see by her pale skin, an obvious indicator of prolonged living underground." Eulogy took his index finger and hooked it in her cheek showing her teeth. "She also has all of her teeth and no sign of malnourishment."

Amata bit his finger in protest to his rough treatment, causing him to yelp in pain and snatch his finger from her, but he soon retaliated with the back of his hand as the crowd erupted in laughter.

"She even still has a bit of fight left in her." He joked as he tried to play off his humiliation.

"Alright enough of this, How much you want for her." A Slaver asked.

"Let's start the bidding at, oh I don't know how about 10,000 caps." He answered, which only received a negative uproar from the crowd.

"10,000 caps for this piece of shit! You got to be kidding me!" A Raider shouted,

"He's got a point, now if this so called 'vault dweller' you got here were to be the Lone Wanderer I could understand but 10,000 caps for a scrawny girl is highway robbery. Drop the price or we're walking!" a slaver threaten.

The Lone Wanderer was among the crowd, thankful he had a wastehound hood covering his face, He could see Amata chained to the post on the makeshift podium. He fought the urge to draw his weapon when he saw his old friend's condition, as there were to many guns here for him to simply shoot up the place and that wasn't even counting Eulogy's own contingent of slavers. If he was going to walk out of Paradise Falls he would have to win the bidding contest for her.

"Alright you broke ass mother fuckers we start a 2,000 caps." Eulogy Jones relinquished his 10,000 cap price tag. Instantly one of the leather clad individuals hand shot up.

"2,000 and 3 assault rifles." The Raiders countered.

"2,500 and 2 pairs of slaves of your own choosing." A slaver counter offered.

"3,000 caps" A rival Slaver offered.

As the bidding war was raging on, Amata couldn't help but feel degraded, she was being traded for material things and there was nothing she could do about it. She thought about home once more and if she ever see it again.

"4,000 caps 4 assault rifles and a flamethrower" A Raider shouted,

"5,000 caps 5 assault rifles and 5 slaves." A slaver offered.

The Lone Wanderer stood amongst the bidders waiting for his opportunity, and it seemed to be coming close as no one wanted to go over the five thousand mark.

"5,000, 6 Chinese assault rifles and a Minigun." One of the leather clad individuals offered.

This offer seemed to get Eulogy's attention as it seemed to be the best offer anyone was willing to give.

"Alright, if no one else is willing to present a better offer."

This was the opportunity he was waiting for.

"8,000 caps 10 Chinese assault rifles and a Gatlin Laser." The offer came up from the hooded figure.

"Oh, bullshit! No one has one of those." One of the Raiders shouted.

"Now hold on, it seems we might have ourselves a winner!" Eulogy exclaimed surprised at this mysterious individuals offer. "Now I can't say I've seen one of those before but it would be a very welcomed addition, so if there are no other offers I'd like to close this transaction." Jones looked out among the crowd and only saw disgruntled Raiders and Slavers shooting dirty looks at the hooded figure.

"Alright, SOLD! To the man with the hood, now if you would be so kindly as to come this way." Eulogy gestured toward the building behind him, he unchained Amata and led her inside as the Lone Wanderer pushed his way through the crowd. Inside, Eulogy drew up the contract and signed it. The Lone Wanderer dropped to bags on the floor, one holding the Gatlin Laser and the other was full of Chinese Assault Rifles and Caps, he let the Slave Trader inspect the goods before signing on the dotted line.

"Congratulations, my good man, uh if you don't mind me asking."

"I do mind, now take the collar off." The hooded figure demanded. Cutting Eulogy off mid-sentence.

"…You sure?" after an awkward silence he complied. Removing the bomb collar from around Amata's neck.

"Just so you know if she escapes I don't offer refunds." Jones warned,

The Lone Wanderer just wanted to be done with this place and moved to take the girl. Amata looked at the dark hooded menacing figure and managed to find renewed vigor as she tried to lash out at him, The Lone Wanderer didn't even flinched and simply stared at her futile struggle.

"Get the hell away from me! Don't you dare touch me! Or, or I'll-" Amata was cut off as the hooded figure grabbed her by the throat almost as fast like lighting.

"Shut up, you're mine now." He growled.

Amata spit on his hood and was properly rewarded with a harsh slap that floored her. The hooded figure grabbed hold of chains that bound his new property and wrapped it around her neck, he gave no order as he started pulling her towards the exit.

'_Think you over did it?'_ The Lone Wanderer thought,

'_Doesn't matter, we can't let anyone think this is a rescue.'_ He concluded as he pushed through the doors back into the open compound. Amata had managed to get back to her feet and did her best to keep up as the chain around her neck forced her to. They were nearing the exit of the compound when a group of Raiders stepped between them and the exit.

'_Well, so much for a smooth escape.'_ The Lone Wanderer thought.

"We want the girl." Was their simple demand. The moved towards the two when suddenly a loud and familiar sound was heard, and a .308 caliber round slammed into the dirt in between them kicking up dust and halting the Raiders in their tracks.

"I don't like it when idiots start shit in my place." Eulogy said as he stood next to one of his men with a sniper rifle. "I don't care if you little shits have a problem, settle that shit in the waste NOT here!" he added, his henchman fired another round this time hitting the exit door behind the Raiders. This was enough to get his message across as the Raiders step aside and allowed the two to continue. Amata and the Lone Wanderer stepped through the doors and out into the Capital Wasteland. A few minutes had passed before Eulogy told the Raiders to get the hell out of his compound, to which they rallied themselves for a hunt.


	3. Showdown at Big Town

Amata was weary and tired, which caused her to walk at a sluggish pace. She wanted to stop but the hooded individual seemed to only walk faster and wasn't allowing any slack in the chains that bound her.

"Who are you, what do you want with me?" she cried, to which she got no reply. The Sun was beaming down on her and she could feel her throat getting dry. It was only when she collapse to her knees did her captor paused, he turned and looked at her from behind the two white orbs that served as peepholes. He walked over to her and crouched down. He took out a metal flask and held it up to her.

"Drink" He commanded.

Amata shook her head no like a stubborn child.

"Damn it, Amata just drink the damn water!" He barked.

Amata looked at him, she eyed him suspiciously, "How do you know my-" she didn't get to finish as the hooded figure shoved the opening of the flask in her mouth and poured water down her throat causing her to gag and cough. Satisfied he stood back up and continues his trek and when the chain went taught she was forced to continue hers. It was some time before Amata could say something again and she continued where she left off.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" she shouted at him, still she didn't get no response.

'_Maybe you should tell her, it might make her more co-operative.'_ The Lone Wanderer thought.

"_No, No time, got to move."_ He muttered to himself, but Amata could still hear him.

'_This guy is completely nuts! I got to find a way out of this'_ she thought.

"Look whatever you want I'm sure we can come to a reasonable agreement." Amata pleaded, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

"LISTEN TO ME!" she shouted, to which the Lone Wanderer continued to ignore.

Amata stopped in her tracks, she knew only one factor about her captor and that he wanted her alive, otherwise she would be dead already. The chain went taught and started to choke her and just as she wagered the hooded individual in front of her stopped too. Now maybe she could get some answers. The man tugged on the chain telling her to move but like a stubborn Brahmin she refused. She tugged back on the chain even though it only served to choke her further. With a violent heave he pulled her to the ground, Amata looked up at him with defiance in her eyes.

"I'm not moving from this spot until I get some answers." She spat. The individual seemed to be annoyed at her little rebellion.

'_We don't have time for this, if she refuses to move then either leave her or move her! Hurry up and choose cause the raiders sure as hell won't give you a chance to!' _

The Lone Wanderer made up his mind and walked over to Amata as she picked herself up off the ground.

"Amata… It's me." He told her.

Amata was confused with the sudden statement at first but then it started to register to her. Unfortunately for her she never got the chance to finish the thought as The Lone Wanderer punched her in her stomach, reintroducing her to a world of darkness. He caught her before she could hit the ground and hefted her onto his shoulders. He took off at a quicker pace to make up for lost time. It was some time before the Lone Wanderer spotted what he was looking for. The empty neighborhood that held a couple of boarded up houses but within it laid the small settlement of Big Town. He crossed the moat over a small rope bridge. Giving a nod to the one guard on duty. He was promptly greeted by a young girl in a red jumpsuit, appropriately named Red.

"Hey who you got there?" she asked,

"A friend." He replied as he made his way to her clinic.

"Is she hurt? I'll help any way I can." Red offered.

"No thanks, she's just unconscious." He answered.

"What happened? If you don't mind me asking." She asked cautiously.

"I knocked her out." He answered again as he opened the door to her clinic and proceeded inside.

"Wait, she's your friend and you knocked her out? Do I even want to ask why?" she asked sarcastically.

"Nope, and Raiders are coming this way, so I suggest you get everyone ready and inside as quickly as possible." He answered as he placed Amata on a nearby gurney. "Hey you still got my stash in the basement?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah, uh how many are coming? Do you know?" Red asked a bit concerned.

"Nothing I can't handle." He said as he disappeared down the stairs into the basement after a couple of awkward moments in which Red could hear him rummaging through his stuff. He soon reappeared again from the basement with a bag and tossed Red a hunting rifle as he proceeded out the door with Red in tow.

"You not going to put it on?" Red asked.

"Nope, don't need to and I don't have the time to." He answered in a factorial manner.

"So what's your plan, DO you even _**have**_ a plan?" Red asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to kill every single one of them." He answered in a serious tone as he walked back across the rope bridge leaving her at the edge of the other end.

Red didn't doubt him one bit, she had seen him single handedly defeat several super mutants as he rescued her and Shorty from the Germantown police station and again when the super mutants attacked the town, so the only people who were really in danger were the Raiders and she was okay with that.

The Lone Wanderer took note of the time of day as the sun was starting its decent towards the horizon, as he had seen it done so many times before, he quickly set to work laying down mines along the road once done he headed to a relatively safe distance of a boarded up house and readied his lever action rifle. Almost as soon he got into cover he could hear the hooting and hollering that marked the coming of the raiders, just as he figured they came stampeding down the road almost without a care in the world.

They would soon learn to care.

The raider in front didn't even notice the frag mine he had triggered until it was too late. With a loud deafening explosion he and 2 other raiders' bodies were blown to bits, using the explosion as a cue The Lone Wanderer started to open fire on the group with deadly precision, he manage to drop two more with a 10mm round to the chest. Thought the remaining raiders were temporarily stunned by the sudden ambush they manage to get behind cover to regain themselves.

"Who the fuck is this asshole!?" He could hear them speak.

"Don't care but I'm going to fucking rip is arms off!" He heard another shouted.

A raider quickly stuck his head out to see where the shooter was, he quickly ducked back as a round collided with his corner of the wall.

"Ha, missed you fucker!" He taunted. He soon relayed the hooded man's position to the others and they began focusing fire on his concrete barrier.

"Let's ice this fucker and get that girl."

"Fuck the girl, there's a whole damn town here!"

The Lone Wanderer ducked to avoid the incoming fire, he took a deep breath and reminded himself to remain calm. He thought of multiple scenarios to get himself out of this mess.

'_Another fine mess you managed to get yourself into, hope you find a way out of this mess without getting your ass shot off.'_ He mentally chided.

"Working on that." He muttered to himself.

'_Well it's been a while since I did that.'_ He thought to himself as another bullet skimmed over his cover. He reached into his bag and found a plasma grenade of all things. A bit surprised that he had over looked this, He quickly tossed it over his cover at the raiders. The raiders saw the little yellow green grenade drop in front of them causing them to scatter like radroaches. After a while they notice something, the grenade pin wasn't pulled making them erupt with laughter.

"What the fuck!? I thought I was a goner." One raider laughed with relief.

"This guy is a fucking idiot!" another joined in.

"Hey guys watch this!" A raider reached down and picked it up the grenade, he pulled the pin. "Hey dumbass! _**THIS **_is how you throw a grenade!"

As if on yet another cue the Lone Wanderer popped up and quickly entered V.A.T.S. mode, everything seemed to slow down to a crawl at that point. He took aim at the plasma grenade in the raider's hand and fired. The bullet traveled towards its intended target and pierced the outer casing of the grenade causing it to detonate prematurely bathing everything and everyone in it's range in superheated green plasma and instantly turned the smug raider into a pile of green goo. The Lone Wanderer stood up from out of his cover to survey the damage. There were several raiders killed by the explosion alone not counting the one that got turned into a pile of green shit. He could see there were also a couple of survivors as they struggled to stand to their feet, he quickly took aim at the nearest one and fired a round into his back killing him. Another was trying to crawl away, obviously his legs were crippled by the explosion, he chambered another round into his lever action rifle and walked towards him. The raider could hear the heavy footsteps behind him as he began to crawl faster trying to get away. The Lone Wanderer stepped on one of his broken legs causing him to scream in pain. He placed the rifle at the back of his head and pulled the trigger sending bits and pieces of skull and grey matter across the cracked paved road.

"Holy shit!" He could hear the hushed tone of another raider, female if he heard correctly, obviously trying to hide and was doing a poor job at it.

"Come out or die hiding, it doesn't matter to me." He called out. After a while of waiting he pretended to not notice the raider as she tried to sneak away from her cover. He quickly turned around and fired a warning shot at her feet.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! It's you!" she cried, she didn't get a chance to tuck back into cover as the Lone Wanderer put a bullet in her shoulder sending her crashing to the ground.

"Fuck! You didn't have to shoot me!" she snapped.

"Sorry my finger slipped, I was aiming for your head." He retorted as he aimed his rifle at her.

"Bullshit!" she snapped again.

The Lone Wanderer fired another round, this time purposefully missing her leg.

"Shit! Ok, ok, what do you want." She asked.

'_Good job! you got a raider to give up, now what? Tell her to turn from her evil ways and become a proper member of society?'_ His mind mocked him.

"Give me your clothes." Was his only demand to which the raider looked at him strangely.

"You're a sick twisted fucker aren't you!? Hell you and I can start our own-"She was cut off as he fired another round into the ground near her.

"Alright, Damn!" The raider spat as she began to strip off her armor and left them on the ground, leaving her in nothing but a t shirt and briefs.

"Chilly, isn't it?" He joked as the sun sank beneath the horizon.

"Fuck. you." Was her only retort.

"Now. Start running." He ordered as he pointed toward a nearby hill in the distance. She didn't need to be told twice as she took off running as fast as she could kicking up dust as she ran away. He counted to ten and checked how far she had gotten, she had just reached the base of the hill, He took aim with his rifle and waited till she had reached the top, she made the mistake of turning to give him the finger when the bullet ripped it clean off and planting itself right between her eyes.

Satisfied with a fine day's work he proceeded to scavenge anything and everything off the dead raider corpses and headed back to town. When he arrived a great cheer greeted him as the citizens of big town welcomed him back. Red was the first to greet him.

"Well you sure showed them." Red remarked.

'_Hell yeah you sure did, you big stud you!'_ He thought but didn't allow the expression to show.

"Hey has Amata woken up yet?" he asked as he handed her a bag of items he had scavenged. He already knew the answer and from her sudden change in her voice told him it was not good.

"Yeah and she is not happy, we had to lock her in the common house! She was so upset. So yeah good luck with that." Red joked as she pointed at the near the clinic.

The Lone Wanderer let out a sigh, for when one battle ends another begins.


	4. One of those days

The Lone Wanderer stood at the door of the common house and braced himself for what was coming, he turned the door knob and proceeded inside. The house was a complete mess but it was like that with any house he walked into, dust and dirt covered the place and with the sunset came nightfall so he only had the light of the moon that peaked through worn out planks and an old pre war lamp to illuminate the room he was in. He could barely make out the peeling wallpaper and the dirt covered mattress that served as a bed, but something was off and he couldn't put his finger on it. There was a sudden creak of the door he had entered and it was enough of a warning to tell him to dodge. A wooden plank sailed over his head as he ducked a swing, he knew who was attacking him and he couldn't blame her.

"AMATA! WAIT!" was all he managed to yell before being forced to dodge another swing.

He pulled off his hood to show that he was telling the truth but it seem to be of little help as Amata came at him again.

"IT'S ME! DON'T YOU EVEN RECOGNIZE ME!" He shouted as he dodged again causing the wooden plank to put a hole in the wall behind him.

"I KNOW ITS YOU!" Amata shouted back as she took aim at him.

"THEN WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME?" He asked as he readied himself.

"BECAUSE IT'S YOU! YOU ASSHOLE!" She retorted as she came at him once more. This time he was ready as he grabbed the board mid swing and yanked it from her grasp effectively disarming her.

"Will you just calm down!?" He asked, he got his answer in the form of a slap.

'_You SO deserved that'_ his mind mocked.

"Look I know you-" he was cut off with another slap.

'_That one too.' _It added.

"I can't believe you! 'I'm yours?'" she quoted the words he told her back at Paradise Falls.

"I had to make it believable." Was his only answer.

"and half choking me and dragging me across the desert was an act too huh." She added accusingly,

He hesitated before answering "Not 'entirely' necessary." Was all he could get out before being rewarded with another slap.

'_and the hits just keep on coming'_

"And then you knock me out, take me to god knows where and just leave!?" she yelled.

"In my defense I was off killing raiders to protect the town." He answered.

"So let me get this straight. You slap and choked me to trick my captors, drag me across a desert."

"Wasteland" he corrected.

"Wasteland," she mockingly corrected herself before continuing "knock me out, and went to go kill some raiders. Is that right?" she crossed her arms as she finished.

The crossing of arms was never a good sign it was one of many lessons he had learned about women in general, In hindsight the chain around her neck wasn't entirely necessary but being in such a hurry to get as much distance from the raiders he didn't consider how she felt.

"Alright, I'll admit that some of the things I did were a bit," he paused to find the right word. "'extreme', but you're safe now and… you're not a slave." He added the last bit with uncertainty. He did have a point though, things could have been worst off for Amata a lot worse than what he did.

"Well I guess I should thank you then." She said, The Lone Wanderer was 'thanked' by a swift kick between the legs causing him to collapse to his knees.

'_And this is the thanks you get, for 'saving' her from a life of servitude and certain death. Good job!' _

"I'll, just take my, leave then." He managed to utter as he staggered out the door still hunched over. The door was slammed behind him and locked. Red walked over to him to see if she needed any help.

"So I take it as it didn't go so well." She said as she offered a condoling hand on his back.

"Actually it went better than I expected." He joked.

"Well I'm sure she'll get over it…eventually." She added. "so what's next?" she asked.

"I'll keep watch, let Dusty get some rest, he looks like he hadn't had a proper night's rest." He offered.

"Has anyone? Since you left people just can't sleep as soundly knowing you're not around." Red admitted.

"Well me and my 'friend' will be here for another day." He told her.

"You're the only one I know who can get beaten up by someone and still call them a friend." Red laughed.

"Believe me, it gets harder to do everyday." He said as he went to relieve the lone guard on post.

Dusty, the lone guard of Big Town, didn't hesitate to take The Lone Wanderer's offer as he left his post to get some needed rest. The Lone Wanderer sat in the single chair by the trash can fire and looked out into the darkness that had covered the Capitol Wasteland. To the untrained eye it just looked like a whole bunch of nothingness but he knew better than to think that there was nothing out there. Every now and then he would see something move, but it was hard to determine if it was something dangerous or his mind playing tricks on him. Nights spent in the wastes tend to cause paranoia to run rampant, for out there beyond the reach of light always lies something sinister. If there were any threats if any at all, they seemed to have kept its distance or left the area entirely for the night. The Lone Wanderer welcomed the first gleam of sunlight as it came over the horizon and watched as it drove back the darkness. Dusty came back to relieve him of his post and take over once more as the lone sentry of Big Town.

The Lone Wanderer stretched and headed towards Red's Clinic to get some much needed rest. Several hours had passed and the sun was nearing its highest point in the day when Dusty noticed a red headed girl in a filthy jumpsuit head towards the bridge out of Big Town, He recognized her as the one The Lone Wanderer had carried in the day before.

"Hey, where are you going?' He called out to her.

"I'm going home." She only replied as she crossed the bridge over the moat.

"Are you insane? You have no idea what's out there, just waiting for you." He warned a bit worried about those 'things' coming to Big Town.

"So I take it that means you're going to escort me home?" She smiled mockingly.

"Who me? No, no, no, no." he quickly backpedaled, "but I can go get someone who can." He added.

"If you're talking about that sicko then no thanks! I'll be better off on my own." She said as she turned and left.

"Oh boy, better go get him, and let him deal with this." Dusty moaned as he headed towards Red's Clinic.

The Lone Wanderer was sitting on the couch in Red's Clinic. He had managed to get some rest but his thoughts about what to do next tended to keep him awake, and the way Dusty came through the door in a hurry and almost ran smack into Red kinda made him thankful it did.

"She left, that girl with the red hair and dirty jumpsuit. She just left town." Dusty exclaimed a bit worried.

"Are you going to go after her?" Red asked also a bit worried.

The Lone Wanderer looked at his Pip Boy and noted the time before answering."I'll give her a 10 minute head start."

Amata made some way into the harsh wasteland under the unforgiving rays of the sun, to the point that she could no longer see Big Town any more. When she came to a bridge did she had a realization, in her anger she had overlooked the fact that she little to no knowledge of the layouts of The Capital Wasteland. She was contemplating on whether or not to turn back when a pink fur-less creature wandered from behind a rock. It looked harmless enough, which was until two more walked up behind it and all three started to bared their buck teeth at her.

'_They don't exactly look cute and cuddly, in fact I suggest the turn and run like hell plan!"_ she thought and Amata did just that with the three wasteland critters in tow. Amata considered herself physically fit, especially to outrun her tiny pursuers, but the jagged rocks and blazing hot heat of the wasteland quickly started to take its toll on her. She could feel them close behind her snapping their buck teeth at her heels, meaning she couldn't keep this up for long. Her mind raced for a way out and soon found it in the form of a giant rock but it was a bit of distance away.

'Come on Amata! You can make it! Just get to that rock!' She thought motivating herself to get there. She could feel her lungs burning in protest and the jagged rocks on the ground seemed almost determined to slow her down as they poked and cut through the bottom of her vault jumpsuit. Somehow she had manage to make it while putting some distance between her pursuers. She started her hurried scramble to the top and had almost made it to the top when one of the critters jumped up and latched onto a part of her jumpsuit, tearing off a piece before falling back to the ground. Once safe on top of the bolder she look down at them jumping and snapping at her. Amata had hoped they would give up and just go away but they seem obsessed with getting her. After a while had passed she looked at her Pip Boy and sighed.

"Great move Amata, you're safe from the evil pink- what the hell do you even call these things?!" She yelled in frustration. The beaming sun showed her no mercy as almost another hour had passed. Her pursuers had started walking around the boulder intent on out waiting their meal.

"Sigh why didn't I just wait and had _**'him'**_ take me home." She moaned in hindsight.

'_Because you don't think of the repercussions of your actions' _she could almost hear her father now.

"Hello over there!" the sudden greeting cut off her train of thought. She jumped up and started looking around to find the source of the voice.

'_Was I just hearing things? Oh great now I'm hearing things!'_ she thought until she spotted a hooded figure.

'_Oh great, it's him of all people to find me it would be him.'_ She mentally complained, "Hurry up and get me down from here!" she yelled back.

"Oh I'm sorry I seem to recall getting 'thanked' the last time I saved you. I don't think I want that again." The Lone Wanderer answered back.

'_Ok so kicking the one person who can get you back home in the balls was a bit much_.' Amata rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Ok what do you want!?" She asked.

"We start over, forget what happened and we'll be even." He requested.

Amata paused for just a moment to swallow her pride. "Fine." She agreed.

"I'm sorry I couldn't hear you. What was that?" The Lone Wanderer joked.

"I SAID FINE!" She shouted reaching the limits of her patience.

Three shots of his lever action rifle put an end to her little pink devils as they lay dead around the boulder. She climbed down to reluctantly meet her savior.

"Did you have fun?" The Lone Wanderer jested.

"Oh haha, very funny." Amata shot back as she pushed passed him.

"What not even a thank you?" He feinted being hurt, but after seeing that a piece of cloth that covered her rear was torn off, he figured that was thanks enough.

AN: Hope you enjoyed chapter 4 the next chapter should be up soon.


	5. Bitter Thoughts

AN: Just want to thank all who have and will read this, your support is appreciated, now chapter 5 of a Path best not taken.

The sun was passing its crest and starting its descent towards the horizon when Amata and the Lone Wanderer had made it back to Big Town, neither one said a word during their long trek back and it looked like it would stay that way for some time.

"Welcome back." Red greeted them. Amata gave her a halfhearted smile before heading back toward the common house, Red was about to remark on Amata's torn jumpsuit when the Lone Wanderer placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Let her be, she had a rough day." He informed her.

"Then shouldn't you get her a change of clothes?" Red asked.

"In due time." He remarked.

"Well hello there." A monotone voice from behind him greeted. Out of all the things in the Capital Wasteland there was one individual who could make the Lone Wanderer blood go cold. "Bittercup" was all he could say before he was wrapped in an awkward hug from behind.

"I missed you, it has been so long." She continued, rubbing her head against his back. The Lone Wanderer managed to gently peel her off him.

"Bittercup, how things been?" He asked awkwardly,

"I'll just leave you two love birds." Red smiled as she excused herself to his dismay.

'_Oh God don't leave me here with her!'_ he mentally cried, wishing she would save him.

"She just doesn't understand us." Bittercup remarked as she grabbed hold of his hand. Her touch was as cold as the nights in the wasteland. "And to answer your question things have been better with you around." She said as she brought his hand up to her face to rub against it, The Lone Wanderer shivered slightly unnerved by this teenage girl.

"It's been so long since we watched the moon rise." She wishfully noted as the sunset taking its light and warmth with it.

"Oh, I almost forgot." She pulled 6 rounds of 5mm ammo from her pocket and handed them over to him.

"These are your favorite right?" she asked hoping for a compliment.

"Uh yeah, thanks Bittercup but where did you get these from?" He had to asked, Bittercup had a tendency to take things from the other Big Town citizens and give it to him as a gift.

"I got them off those dead raiders silly. You know the ones you got piled up not too far from here." She answered.

Her answer became a disturbing alarm as the Lone Wanderer remembered that he simply scavenged the bodies and left them to rot where they were. He quickly excused himself and left Big Town heading back to where he had fought the raiders and sure enough there were drag marks on the ground along with long smears of blood trailing off away from the settlement. The Lone Wanderer followed the trail and soon came upon a pile of flesh and bones, no doubt the raiders he had killed earlier. There could have been any number of things that could have done it but one thing in particular stuck out in his mind and It look like things were about to go from bad to worst with no end in sight anytime soon. In the meantime he could only hope their luck will hold. Amata sat in silence of the nearly pitch black dark with only the slivers of moonlight illuminating her surroundings, lost in thought she nearly jumped when there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she asked already knowing the answer.

"You know who this is." Came an obvious reply.

"What do you want know?" she asked annoyed.

"Well I brought you a change of clothes, seeing as the ones you're in are torn and filthy, but if you prefer to stay in them…" he trailed off.

Resigning with a sigh she got up and opened the door for the Lone Wanderer and took the bag of clothes he handed her.

"What's this?" she asked as she looked into the bag and noticed there were questionable 'stains' in the clothes.

"It's better if you don't know, hell I wouldn't be able to answer it with any certainty any way." He remarked. Before she could think up of any other questions he added. "We'll be leaving early tomorrow morning, so make sure you get some sleep." With that he turned to leave.

'_You know this is the second time he saved you so the least you can do is thank him, Amata.'_ She mentally chided herself.

"Thank you." She nearly shouted with a slight hope she wouldn't regret it.

"Not a problem, now try those clothes on and get some sleep we'll be leaving a little before sunrise." He replied as he continued to walk away.

'_Who does he think he's fooling!? Trying to act all cool!'_ she fumed before slamming the door, she fumbled around in the dark before turning on a lamp. With some light she got a better look at the clothes and found most of them to be ridiculously revealing and some were down right wrong to wear for any occasion. She would sooner wear the bag they came in than what she had to choose from but she settled on what seemed to be the least embarrassing satire out of the bunch. She retired to the bedroom which was just a filthy mattress on the floor in another room of the house. Amata found herself wishing for the soft clean beds of the vault as she drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

The Lone Wanderer had once again taken up night watch so that the lone sentry of Big Town could get some sleep. As he kept vigil over the lone bridge leading into the settlement his thoughts returned to the pile of flesh and bones that had mysteriously piled themselves up and what could have done it. He mentally ticked off each possible subject that didn't match the pattern. It wasn't Super Mutants, they tend to put remains in bags for latter keeping, Raiders merely dismember their victims and string them up like trophies, Dogs can't move entire bodies into a pile and the teeth marks he noticed didn't match. All throughout the night he kept coming back to one conclusion but it was one he didn't want to accept. At least without some evidence. He was lost in thought until his Pip-boy reminded him it was time to move, he woke up Dusty to his displeasure, and went to wake Amata.

"Amata, it's time to go." He called as he knocked on the door.

"Aww can't I just sleep a little longer?" came her groggy remark.

Amused but not deterred he continued to knock until she got up, but he was surprise when she opened the door.

"I look ridiculous, don't I?" she remarked about her new clothes.

"No, in fact it suits you, a bit too much." He joked.

"Must you continuously mock the sad state that I am in?" she scolded, she shivered in the night air as the sun had yet to rise. She figured that today would be just as hot as yesterday and had chosen shorts with overall shoulder straps fashioned to them and a white tank top, the socks and boots almost came up to her knees but they felt comfortable enough to travel in.

"Come on, let's get moving." He said as he turned to leave.

Amata quickly picked up her bag and the two started their walk south. During their trek the Lone Wanderer remained silent and aware of all his surroundings while Amata did her best to keep up. She noticed that he was carrying a bag similar to hers but it held something big in it, a long metal rod sticking out was the only clue to what it was. As the sun started to rise spreading light and warmth over the Capital Wasteland. The Lone Wanderer's pace seemed to quickened and she deduced that he must be in a hurry of some sorts.

"Can't we slow down just a bit?" she asked almost out of breath.

With a bit of reluctance he seemed to slow down a bit in response to her question.

"Where are we heading?" she asked a bit more comfortable with the pace they had taken up.

"I'm taking you back to the vault." He answered.

"Well what's the rush? I mean surely there's no need to go 'straight' there." She questioned.

'_Uh oh, does this remind you of someone we all know?' _He thought.

"Amata, every second spent out here is another second you could die, so it would be in your best interest to get back inside the vault as soon as possible." He answered.

"Well you managed to stay alive all this time, how hard can that be?" she half-heartedly joked. The Lone Wanderer stopped in his tracks.

"So you think you can survive out here?" he turned to ask.

'_What are you thinking?'_ His conscience questioned worried about his intent.

"Well kind of, I mean with the proper tools and people." Amata answered a bit sure of herself.

'_NO, you can't do that! It's not right! / Then again what better way to drive home the message?'_ His morals seem to have declared war on each other.

"Alright, you obviously want to see what's out here." He paused as he looked around to get his bearings. "Let's take a detour." He said as he walked away.

'_This is a bad idea / well it's better than trying to lecture her.'_

'_Nothing good can come of this / __**WRONG**__ something good __**WILL**__ come of this.'_ His morals conflicting with one another, reasoning and counter reasoning, it was not until he and Amata came to a hill overlooking a blown out house did they fell silent. This was going to happen one way or another.

'_I hope you know what you're doing / when do I ever.'_


	6. Wasteland ethics

The Sun had made progress over its long arch in the sky and was nearing its peak when the Lone Wanderer and Amata reached the top of a hill overlooking a half destroyed building. Amata had no idea where he was taking her and It wasn't until he handed her a 10 mm pistol did an alarm go off in her head.

"What is this for?" she asked a bit alarmed, The Lone Wanderer held a finger up to his mouth to signal her to remain silent as he crouched down. Amata looked on as he took the bag off his back and pulled out his sniper rifle and used its scoop to recon the area ahead. Just as he had guessed Raiders moved in to the blown out house overlooking a small bridge. Kaelyn's Bed and Breakfast if he remembered correctly.

"What's going on? What are you looking at?" Amata asked a bit unnerved at his silence. The Lone Wanderer ignored her question and focused on one of the raiders who seemed to be talking to another and squeezed off a round, the resulting sound of the sniper rifle firing made Amata jump. The bullet traveled a bit of ways before finding its mark in the back of an unfortunate raider's head. Splattering his blood and grey matter all over the fellow raider he was talking to, blinded and dumbfounded the raider tried to wipe the mess off him but didn't get to make much progress as a .308 round buried itself in his chest cavity. A raider keeping watch from the house noticed his fellow raiders dropping like flies and tried to find out where it was coming from. He soon got his answer as a round found its mark right between his eyes. The Lone Wanderer stood up from his position and motion for Amata to follow.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going on!" Amata exclaimed.

"I'm just going to show you what this wasteland has to offer." Was his simple response as he walked toward the blown out bed and breakfast house. Amata reluctantly followed unknowing of the carnage her eyes were about to fall on.

A raider who was fast asleep had awoken to the sound of gunfire, after a quick glance around he soon realized that all his fellow raiders were dead and could only assume that the pair that were making their approach must've been the culprits. He hid himself and grabbed a nearby metal pipe, he was going to take at least one of these assholes with him if it was the last thing he did. He watched as a man in combat armor switched to his lever action rifle and stepped through the doorway, the woman that was with him froze just outside when she saw the bodies.

"What's wrong?" He heard the man ask.

"They, they're all dead!" she managed to choke out.

"Well of course they are, they're raiders it's not like they were going to let us walk right in." The raider heard the man causally responded, "Motherfucker thinks were scum, I'll show him!" he muttered under his breath as he readied himself to strike.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? These are people!" Amata cried,

The Lone Wanderer was about to respond when a loud battle cry interrupted him.

"Die you fuckers!" the raider yelled as he charged.

The Lone Wanderer put a round through the raider's leg causing him to fall to the ground mid charge. Amata could hear the slew of curses come from the raider's mouth as he grabbed his bleeding leg in pain.

"Looks like I missed one." The Lone Wanderer commented, though he wasn't surprise at that fact. He was about to finish him off when Amata stopped him.

"No! no more killing! He's defenseless and he's no longer a threat." She reasoned in an attempt to save the wounded raider's life.

'_My God! Was you really this stupid when you first walked out the vault?'_ he thought as memory of his first encounter with the wasteland inhabitants came to mind.

"Step aside Amata." He ordered.

"No" she said defiantly, she had seen enough death most of them by The Lone Wanderer's hands.

"What's wrong? Can't keep your bitch in line?" the wounded raider laughed as he managed to prop himself up against one of the rotten wooden beams of the building.

The Lone Wanderer looked at the raider and back at Amata trying to hide his disbelief, it seemed that Amata was going to overlook the fact that the raider had just called her a bitch.

"Alright, I won't shoot him." He relented.

"Thank you." She sighed in relief, but soon found out it was a bit too early to celebrate.

"You will." The Lone Wanderer added.

"What!" both the raider and Amata yelled in unison.

"What the hell is wrong with you! I'm not going to kill him!" Amata yelled.

"Then do you plan to stop me?" he said as he looked at the 10mm gun in Amata's hand.

Just as he had guessed she had raised the gun toward him in a vain attempt to dissuade him.

"Oh this is rich, fucking rich!" the raider laughed.

"Let's just leave him be." Amata said almost pleadingly.

The Lone Wanderer sighed, it would seem he would have to escalate the situation a bit further if his point was to get across. In a quick motion he snatched the gun from her and tossed it between the raider and her. Amata couldn't believe how fast he moved but he managed to put her in a rather awkward state.

The raider eyed the gun then back at his two attackers, the Lone Wanderer could see the tiny cogs of his mind working, weighing the chances that he could get to the gun and shoot them both.

"Think he feels the same way about you? Amata." The Lone Wanderer said as he tossed his lever action rifle aside. No sooner had the rifle hit the ground did the raider scramble for the gun and grabbed it. He laughed as he stood up leaning on his good leg to support him.

"You stupid fuckers, you should've killed me when you had the chance." He laughed.

"look you don't have to-"

"Shut the fuck up you stupid bitch!" the raider yelled cutting her off. A bit taken back by the sudden backlash Amata could only look on as the raider decided on their fate.

"Now who should I shoot first, let's see, since you want to spare me you can be first." He snickered, he couldn't believe his luck, the others won't believe this.

"Time to kiss that sweet ass good bye!" he said as he aimed at Amata.

'_**CLICK'**_

The raider couldn't believe his luck, but The Lone Wanderer could. The gun was empty. Everything went just as he figure it would, from having Amata stop him to getting the gun into the raider's hand, it went just as planed he just hoped she learned something from it. The Lone Wanderer slowly made his advanced towards the raider. He pulled his combat knife as he walked pass Amata who was completely stunned by this strange turn of events.

'_**CLICK'**_

'_**CLICK'**_

The raider desperately pulled the trigger again and again, finding it pointless he dropped the gun on the ground.

"Hey… I was just playing" were the raider's last words he spoke as the Lone Wanderer jammed the serrated edge blade into the raiders neck, he twisted it for good measure before ripping it out through his windpipe spewing blood into the air and covering the ground. The raider collapsed on the ground drowning in his own blood, The Lone Wanderer wiped his knife off on the dying raiders clothes before sheathing it. He went to retrieve is rifle as Amata stood motionless.

"Well that made me hungry, ready to eat?" He asked as he checked his rifle.

Amata stood there staring at the raider drowning in his own blood, conflicting emotions raged inside her as she thought of the possibilities that could have easily gone wrong.

"You knew the gun was empty all along, you gave me an empty gun!?" Amata asked in a confused stated.

"Well I wasn't going to give you a loaded one." The Lone Wanderer replied.

"What was the whole point in this, this senseless murder?" Amata asked trying to find the right words.

"A lesson." He answered as he checked his ammunitions.

"All this, so you can teach me a lesson." Amata said angry that people had to die for no particular reason.

"Yeah" came another simply reply from him.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" She shouted as she could no longer contain her pent up emotions.

"I'm guessing you have a problem with the way I do things." He retorted as he began looting bodies.

"Of course I do! What lesson could possibly justify a senseless slaughter of people?" she demanded.

"First, these aren't people. They're raiders I'd call them monsters if I hadn't already seen some in my travels. These 'people' wouldn't have given it a second thought to add you to their 'collection'." He said as he pointed to the dismembered body hanging from a hook.

"So what was the lesson then?" she asked.

"The lesson is to stay inside the vault, this wasteland is not a place for you Amata." He said as he was finishing up.

"What happened to you?" she asked her curiosity started to take over, she wanted to know what could turn a naïve individual into such a deranged killer.

"Nothing happened." He stated, "and stop looking at me like that." He added.

"No, you weren't like this, not the last time I saw you. Good people don't just go zero to crazy without something significant happening to them." She could sense something deep down was bothering him, that he was restraining his emotions, she decided to inquire further.

"Tell me, what happened." She asked pushing through the Lone Wanderer's resistance, "Was it something I did?" she asked referring to the permanent exile she had given him when she was appointed overseer of the vault. "Look I was just doing what was best at the time."

"It's not that." The Lone Wanderer understood her decision, albeit it came as a bit of a shock at the time, but after thinking it over it was for the better. "Let's just leave this topic alone." He added as he placed all his 'new' belongings in his sack. He closed it and placed it back on his back.

Amata could see he was weakening, just a little bit more, she knew the next topic to bring up. "Last time we talk, you told me you found your dad… how is he?" the question seemed to had hit a nerve in his armor as his cold demeanor seemed to shatter and brake away revealing a sad and lonely individual underneath but as soon as it was seen it was quickly replace with fierce anger. The Lone Wanderer reached in to a side pocket of his pack and pulled out his Wasthound hood and placed it over his head, effectively covering up his facial features.

Amata was about to ask another questioned when a shot rang out and a .32 caliber bullet hit the ground next to her. The duo turned to see where it had originated and saw a group of raiders with their guns at the ready. The Lone Wanderer cursed himself for letting Amata distract him with those questions. He quickly looked around and spotted a small bridge bridging a gap and the small underpass underneath.

"Amata, I need you to run as fast as you can to that underpass." He said as he nodded in its direction.

"What about you? What are you planning on doing?" she whispered.

"I do what I do best, I believe you call it 'senseless murder'?"


	7. Breaking Point

AN: Sorry for the wait! here's ch.7 of Fallout: a path best not taken!

Amata was running, something she found herself doing a lot lately ever since she was forcefully taken from her home and even more so now that she was with the Lone Wanderer. A bullet impacted near her feet quickly snapped her mind back into focus. The safety of the underpass that seemed so far away when The Lone Wanderer told her to run was now within reach and she could only hope one of the raiders didn't get lucky and put a bullet in her back. When she got close enough she dived behind one of the huge pillars that held up the structure. She could still hear the sound of guns being fired which meant they were still fighting, a clear sign that The Lone Wanderer was still alive.

'_My God how do you get yourself into these situations?' _his mind angrily thought as The Lone Wanderer popped out from behind cover and fired his lever action rifle. His attackers didn't seem to be the normal 'run of the mill' raiders, they were organized, at least to the point of taking orders from one individual in particular, he didn't wear normal raider's armor in fact he wore an black outfit with metal spikes sticking from the shoulder pads and from the looks of it he was going to be trouble to deal with.

"Will someone go get the damn girl, and will someone grow a got damn brain and circle around this asshole!" He heard the leader bark orders. One raider tore off from the group and started heading towards the underpass, The Lone Wanderer trained his sights on the raider but was forced back into cover by gunfire.

He cursed as another bullet zipped over his cover. "Alright, got to think, what do I got." He mused to himself as he went over a mental checklist, His thought was interrupted when a sudden flash of heat washed over his cover. He looked around and noticed flames licking at the side of the building he was in.

'_A flamethrower? Where the hell did they get a flamethrower from?'_ he thought. The cover he was behind wouldn't last for long at this rate and if he didn't want to end up as a charred corpse he needed to move fast.

Amata dared poked her head from the safety of her cover, she could see smoke rising up in the distance where she left the Lone Wanderer but something more sinister grabbed her attention. A raider managed to slip by the gunfight and was heading straight for her.

"Shit! What do I do?" she whispered to herself as she relocated to another pillar farther from the incoming raider. She remembered the gun the Lone Wanderer had given her then cursed again as she remembered leaving it back at the now burning building.

'_Come on Amata! THINK! If you can't handle one individual then __**he**__ was right about you all along.'_

Back at the burning bed and breakfast the Lone Wanderer was weighing the odds of surviving this encounter and the results weren't pretty. With a deep sigh he readied himself. He popped from cover and quickly entered V.A.T.S everything slowed to a crawl he selected his targets and fired. Everything seemed to snap back into real time as a round slammed into the chest of the flame wielding raider, another round managed to plant itself into another raider's head dropping him instantly. Their Leader however managed to grab a nearby raider in time to act as his bullet shield and several rounds slammed into the poor fool before being discarded like trash. "Don't tell me that's all you got-" The raid leader was cut off as six more rounds were fired with deadly pinpoint accuracy from _behind _him, each one taking out the rest of his crew leaving him standing alone surrounded by dead corpses. The Lone Wanderer looked pass the confused raider and saw a shady silhouette in the distance with an old world hat and trench coat on. The mysterious figure blew the smoke off his scoped .44 Magnum and turned to leave.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME!?" The Lone Wanderer yelled after him but got no reply as the mysterious man disappeared from view.

"Can someone please tell me? What the hell just happened!?" the only remaining raider yelled in frustration.

As if answering the raider's question The Lone Wanderer put a 10mm round through his leg. He screamed in pain before falling to the ground.

"Wait, now hold on, no need to get trigger happy." He said as the Wanderer trained his sights on him.

"And why shouldn't I blow your brains all over the ground." The Lone Wanderer asked not really caring for the answer.

"Because that nice piece of ass you had running off is probably getting rammed right about now." He laughed manically but it was short lived as the Wanderer put another round in his good leg causing him to yell in pain again. "What the hell was that for?" He asked through the pain.

"I don't want you running off anytime soon. I'll deal with you later." The Lone Wanderer answered before taking off for the underpass hoping Amata was still alive.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty, where are you? Won't you come out and play?" the raider taunted as she looked behind rubble.

"We'll have so much fun! You screaming and begging for mercy while I laugh and cut your fucking fingers off!" she yelled as she banged on a nearby pillar.

Amata had managed to stay out of sight but the raider was getting closer, she did her best not to panic and to think of something but nothing was coming to mind.

"you only making it worst for yourself, I play hide n' kill all the time and guess who wins, ME!" the raider said as she popped around a corner only to find no one there. She had searched every possible hiding spot except for one, a pillar at the far end of the over pass. "Then again they sometimes slip away." She said as she walked off. Amata waited a few minutes before sticking her head out, she saw no one was there. She couldn't believe the raider had left, she breathed a sigh of relief but it was premature as a quick moving shadow caught her eye. She quickly spun around only to see the very raider standing right behind her staring her in the eye.

"BOO! Motherfucker!" the raider yelled, scaring Amata to the point that she jumped back and fell on the ground.

"I found ya, I found ya, and now I get to kill ya!" the raider happily sang. Amata was petrified with fear, her mind screamed 'RUN' but her body refused to comply.

"Now what am I going to do to you." The raider thought as she crossed her arms and paced around her new prey her sick imagination coming into play. Amata's fight or flight instincts finally kicked in as she quickly got up off the ground and raised her fist awkwardly, she had never been in a fight before then again she never had a problem with any of the people in the vault that someone else didn't handle for her.

'_There's no guards here to protect you and you can't always depend on __**him**__ to save you ass every time. Amata.'_

The raider looked on at the bravado of her victim and was slightly amused. "Well I guess I can beat the shit out of you before killing you." She laughed, Amata had never wanted to wipe the smirk off someone's face so much before now. She lashed out and struck first hitting the raider square in the jaw, she quickly pulled her fist back before shaking the painful recoil off.

"Don't tell me that was all you got!" The raider laughed, "That wasn't a punch, here let me show you how it's done." The raider slugged the young red head square on the chin sending her crashing to the ground. Amata was quickly regretting picking a fight with the raider as she started iron taste made itself known in her mouth, her head was already ringing when the raider hit her again and again. It took everything just to stay focus. The raider stood her up before kneeing her in the stomach causing her to cough up whatever was left in it along with some blood. The raider stop for only a second and used her hands to frame Amata up for the next shot as she delivered a unforgiving uppercut to the poor girl. Everything seemed to slow down for Amata as she found herself looking up at the sky. It seem so peaceful, so serene, that was until her back hit the ground snapping her back into reality.

"Aww man, I wish the guys could see this, I'm whipping that ass!" the raider gloated, as Amata turned herself over and tried to crawl away.

"Aww whats this, trying to get away? Oh, I get it. You're hoping lover boy comes to your rescue don't you? Well I got some bad news he probably left you, or he could be dead, your pick really, but the fact of the matter is he's not coming to save you." The raider mocked as she kicked Amata in the rib to deliver the message. She grabbed a fist full of her hair and pulled as she squatted down beside her.

"Oh what's this? Are these tears? But are they tears of pain, or maybe fear, sadness? I wonder." The raider mocked as she took her tongue and licked the salty tears off Amata's cheek. "Holy shit it's all the above." The raider laughed.

Something deep down was starting to rise to the surface for Amata, something she never felt before, she could hardly focus on staying conscience much less figure out what this feeling was but it told her not focus on it but on a rock within grasping distance, she didn't bother rationalizing and simply went for it. No sooner had she managed to grasp it the feeling took over, like a bolt of lightning the hand carrying the rock slammed the piece of earth into the raider's nose braking it. The sudden shock of pain caused the raider to let go of Amata's hair and focus on her own nose instead.

"The fuck that reall-" The raider didn't get a chance to finish as Amata quickly got up and lashed at her with the rock again this time catching the raider on the side of temple knocking her to the ground, Amata threw the rock at her ditching it only so she could get a bigger one, using both hands she hefted a rock the size of her head and lifted it above her own. The raider raised her hand in a vain attempt to stop her attacker, Amata brought the stone down on top of the raiders head causing a gash to open up the raider's forehead. The blood seemed to just drive Amata mad as she got on top of the raider and continued her assault, bring the stone down again and again, she didn't see that the raider's chest had stopped moving or that there was no more attempts to stop her from attacking. All she saw was the raider's face laughing, mocking her over and over again until a hand grabbed her, she quickly swung to face her new attacker only to find a familiar cowl staring back at her. Only then did she come to her senses and realize what she had done, she looked back at her 'handiwork' the sight of the crushed raider's face which no longer held any resemblance nor much of a head did the trick as she quickly pushed pass the Lone Wanderer and vomited.

"Not. A. Word." She heaved, as she vomited again. The Lone Wanderer had thought up of something witty to say but figured it wasn't the best time.

"How much did you see?" Amata managed to ask, she didn't even bother turning to face him.

"Only the point when you got tired of getting your ass handed to you." The Lone Wanderer answered. He had gotten a good look at Amata, swollen jaw, puffy eyes, dirt, cuts and bruises, along with disheveled hair complete with a small trickle of blood from her mouth were all the telltale signs of her survival instinct kicking in. He knew firsthand what that was like, being pushed beyond the breaking point, the will to live overwriting one's morals.

"Wastlander with a combat knife." He said.

"What?" was Amata's only reply, she didn't have to patience to deal with his antics at the moment.

"My first kill, and it wasn't pretty. Gave him bottled water, Idiot decides he wants more came at me with a knife with the intent to kill me for my water. Needless to say he doesn't have to worry about thirst anymore."

"…How do you do it? Deal with the guilt?" she managed to bring herself to ask.

"Guilt? Heh, it's been so long I don't think about it, you'll get over it." He answered.

"I'll get over it? What kind of fucked up answer is that!?" she shouted.

"As in this is 'The Capital Wasteland' answer, no one cares if a raider dies whether it be by bullet, bat, or rock in your case. There are plenty of people, animals_, things out_ here that wouldn't think twice about ripping your throat out and making you lunch. So don't get caught up on one life and simply focus on yours." He retorted, he turned and started to leave, heading back towards the smoking ruins that was Katelyn's Bed & Breakfast.

"Where are you going?" Amata asked, quickly jogging after him

"I got some loose ends that need tying." He answered as he unslung his lever action rifle.

When they got back to his surprise the raider leader wasn't there, all that was left was a trail of blood splatter heading away from the carnage.

"You killed all of them?" Amata asked a bit astonished.

"Yeah, we'll just say that happened." He muttered to himself. "No drag marks so he must've hobbled off." He reasoned. He thought about going after him but he notice the sun was beginning to make it's decent towards the horizon. "Alright, you take that side and I'll take this side." He said pointing at the corpse littering the ground.

"You're kidding…Right?" Amata asked. She may have killed someone but part of her still wasn't ready to 'scavenge' a dead body.

"Oh, well if you prefer killing things with rocks, by all means. Oh and I call dibs on the flame thrower." He said, Amata thought for a second that he sounded happy but figured it was just her mind playing tricks on her. She sighed as she prepared herself for the task at hand.

The Lone Wanderer can see her hesitation as she nitpicked over the corpses. "Think of it as shopping only you don't have to pay." He joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Amata looked around, doing her best not to look at the lifeless eyes and gore, she managed to pull a 10mm pistol from a dead raider's hands and pocketed it she also notice a hunting rifle lying next to raider slumped over a rock she went to retrieve it only to find that the raider wasn't dead yet as he grabbed her by the wrist. She locked eyes with him for only a brief second before using her free hand to pull out her newly acquired 10mm pistol and shooting him in the head. The Lone Wanderer rushed over to see what had happened.

"You ok, Amata?" he asked a bit concern hinted in his voice.

She holstered her pistol and picked up the hunting rifle. "I fine remember, no one cares if a raider dies." She quoted him as she walked away.

AN: Thank you for reading! Sorry it took a while to upload, been having writer's block recently but I got the creative juices flowing again and the next chapter should be up soon.


	8. Nightmares of the Wasteland

AN: Sorry for the long wait! Here's chapter 8 of a path best not taken.

"STUPID, IDIOTS, DUMBASSES!" the raider cursed as he hobbled away from the Bed & Breakfast, cursing with every step he took, but it was the blood trail that trailed behind him that drew the attention of a hulking figure, the figure observed it's prey from a distance waiting to strike. The sun had started to set when it started to make it's move, slowly stalking at first then bursting in a lightning fast sprint. The raider didn't seem to notice until the last minute until it was upon him.

A scream in the distance from where the sun had set let the Lone Wanderer know that the Capital Wasteland had claimed another victim.

"What the hell was that?" Amata asked alarmed, she quickly looked around with her newly acquired hunting rifle to find the source of the sound.

"Will you put that away, beforeyou shoot yourself in the foot." He said pushing the barrel down with his hand.

"What you think I can't handle a gun?" Amata asked defensively.

"Amata, I **know** you can't handle a gun much less a rifle. Just stick with the handgun." He said as he surveyed their surroundings.

Amata bitterly complied as she put the hunting rifle away, but she made sure her 10mm pistol was close by. "So where are we going to sleep at?" she asked trying to stifle a yawn.

The Lone Wanderer would have suggested the ground but the scream that he had heard sounded too close for comfort, also Amata would surely protest to her last breath at the mere suggestion of it. He looked at the map on his pip-boy and decided on a minor detour. The Jury street Metro would serve as a nice place to set up camp.

The blood around it's mouth had not even dried when Grimm came upon the carnage at Katelyn's Bed & Breakfast. It's eyes surveyed the corpse ridden landscape as it's hunger urged it to feed and feed it did.

The Lone Wanderer's mind was hard at work trying to distract itself from the scream he heard earlier but curiosity won in the end. "Wait here." He ordered as he climbed a nearby boulder formation. He took out his sniper rifle and looked through scope. To the untrained eye it looked like a vast empty wasteland at night but to him it was very much alive, from the small kick up of dust of mole rats scampering about to packs of wild Brahmin stampeding in the distance, but none of this were of any concern to him as he turned to face the direction they had came from. He could see the smoke from the bed & breakfast ruins and had almost overlooked the hulking figure because it almost blended into the surrounding darkness. As if the figure knew he was looking at it, it turned and stared back with beady white eyes, but it soon lost interest and went back to feeding. The Lone Wanderer took a deep breath and cursed his curiosity and his luck. He climbed back down the formation and regrouped with Amata.

"See anything?" she asked, her own curiosity getting the better of her.

"Nothing." he lied, there was no need to let Amata know, besides it would only make her panic anyways, He reasoned to himself. As they continued on their way the Lone Wanderer was troubled, if that thing was tracking him he wouldn't be able to fight it and keep Amata safe at the same time. The only option was to get her back to the vault as quickly as possible but tonight he would only have to worry about getting her to the Jury street metro.

The moon was high in the sky when they came upon the ruins of a old world diner.

"We're sleeping in that?" Amata asked a bit put off at the sight of the building, it looked as if someone had set fire to the interior and no one had bothered to put it out.

"No, we're sleeping in that." He said as he pointed to a more 'intact' building. Amata followed him across what had to be the parking lot of the store. When the Lone Wanderer came to the door he paused and place his ear to the door attempting to detect if anyone was inside. After a few moments of silence he tapped something on his pip-boy and it instantly became brighter. Amata had almost completely forgotten she had one of her own, mainly due to the fact that she didn't have many uses for it in the vault. She took a glance down at her own and wondered if it could do the same thing.

"Wait here." He ordered as he pulled his knife and slowly entered the building.

"It seems that's all I ever do." She retorted as she leaned against the entrance. After a few moments the Lone Wanderer returned.

"Just a couple of radroaches." He muttered to himself.

"Well did you kill them?" Amata asked a bit unnerved at the mere thought of the pests.

"Yes, your highness I have exterminated all of them with 'extreme' prejudice." He teased.

Amata gave him a playful shove as she stepped inside, all she could see was what was lit up by the Lone Wanderer's pip-boy light. The building they had come to turned out to be a small grocery store, though most of it's shelves were devoid of food there were some cans and boxes that sat there collecting dust.

"How did you find this place?" she asked.

"Pip-boy" he simply answered as he sat on a nearby cashier's counter.

"And how did you do that thing with light on your pip-boy?" she asked as it would seem to be helpful if she had her own light source.

"Settings, Power usage, and turn off power conservation mode." He explained as if she had asked him something obvious. "Have you ever used your pip-boy?" he joked.

"Of course I had! just not as much." She retorted as she followed his instructions. Instantly she was almost blinded by the interface of her pip-boy as it illuminated the area around her. When her eyes finally adjusted she could see the entire store.

"So is there anything to eat in here?" she asked.

"Way ahead of you." He answered as he got of the counter and started pointing food out. "we have BlamCo Mac & Cheese, Cheezy poofs, Cram but I wouldn't recommend that unless you like crapping your intestines out, Fancy Lads Snack Cakes my favorite, InstaMash, Potato Crisp, and Bubblegum also if you don't find what you like you can have this." He said holding up a piece of radroach carcass. Amata instinctively pulled back in repulse.

"I don't think I'm hungry anymore." she said trying to hold back her gag reflex.

"Well the food is here if you want. In the mean time you should get some sleep if you're not hungry, we'll be leaving a little bit after sunrise." He informed her, "I'll be keeping watch up near the register." He added as he turned to leave.

Amata wanted to ask a couple more questions but figured they could wait till morning. She looked around and finally found a place that didn't have a lot of dirt and rocks littered about and after making a clearing with her hands she laid there. She suddenly realizes that she was beyond fatigued as her eyes became heavy and the aches in her legs and arms made themselves known. Her limits had been reached today both physical and mental. As her eyes slowly closed her thoughts slowly turned to thoughts of life in the vault, thoughts of home.

AN: again sorry for the wait, next chapter shall be up soon!


	9. The good, the bad, and the grim reaper

AN: Chapter 9 of a path better not taken

The Lone Wanderer kept watch throughout the night. His mind wandering every so often of his sighting of what the citizens of the waste took to calling 'The Grim Reaper of the Capital Wasteland' or Grimm for short. A being of nightmares of children and adult alike, legends, stories, and wild tales of encounters with it. At first he didn't believe any of it and he still wouldn't if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.

'_but you didn't exactly __**'see'**__ it.'_ His mind counter reasoned.

'_now you're just being denial, you 'saw' something __**and it 'saw' you**__.'_ He thought.

'_It must hunt by scent otherwise how could it follow you so far, and __**why is it following you**_.' He asked himself.

Suddenly the answer hit him like a wooden bat up side his head.

'_**YOU IDIOT! IT'S FOLLOWING YOU BECAUSE YOU BEEN FEEDING IT!' **_He chided himself, like a hungry dog that had been fed a tasty treat follows the feeder so did Grimm follow the Lone Wanderer as he left a trail of dead bodies behind him. The Lone Wanderer cursed himself over and over again as the realization sank in.

'_Well if feeds it must live, and if it lives it can be killed.'_ He reasoned. Though the logic made sense it seemed unlikely even to him. He remembered rumors and stories of well armed groups mercenaries going after the thing only to turn up dead and half eaten. He was only one person with a girl no less under his care and he doubt his lever action rifle held enough bullets to put something like that down. He looked over his inventory: a sniper rifle with 3 bullets left, a flamethrower in poor condition, his lever action rifle and a knife.

"We're are SO fucked if this thing decides to come after us." He muttered to himself. He took a deep sigh and leaned back against a nearby wall looking at the moon as it crawled it's way across the Capital Wasteland night sky.

As the moon began to fade away as it always has when the sun makes it arrival known, bringing light and heat to the cold wasteland, the Lone Wanderer decided to take a look around. After checking if Amata was still asleep he proceeded out the front doors. He looked at the ruins of the diner and the entryway of the Jury street Metro station and was tempted to take a look inside but decided against it. However he did decide to look inside the diner. Just like he thought there was nothing inside but charred remains of the unfortunate habitants that were inside when the bombs fell. He looked behind the counter and discovered more remains but these remains were different. They were fresh, several days old in fact and from how it was 'arranged' it was clear raiders had gotten this poor bastard. He was about to head back but stopped cold in his tracks when he could hear footsteps.

"And you're sure he came this way?"

"Positive, Intel says he's with a girl."

"A girl eh? What should we do with her? The contract is only for this guy's head."

"We'll have some fun with her then sell her to the highest bidder… if she survives."

The Lone Wanderer pulled out his lever action rifle and crouched down behind the counters of the diner, _'sounds like four men'_ he thought as he poked his head up just enough to see who was talking. He didn't recognize the faces but the armor they wore made it obvious who they were. There was no mistaking the black combat armor with white markings over the chest piece, these were the mercs of Talon Company.

'_The damn sun just rose! It is literally too early for this shit!' _The Lone Wanderer thought to himself. If he ever found out who put a contract out on him he would kill them slowly, but he needed to focus on the task at hand.

"Think he's inside the diner?" one merc asked looking in the Lone Wanderer's direction.

"Are you stupid? Would you hide in a place that can't even keep out rain? No, my bets on the metro station, lots of places to hide and defend from." Another reasoned.

"He could be or you're giving that idiot to much credit, he's probably in that damn store over there." A third pointed at the store Amata was still in.

'_It's official! You got 'THE' worst luck in the world and Amata is getting sucked into it.'_ He fumed.

The fourth merc held up his hand signaling the group to stop. Then motion them to split up and take positions around the small stretch of road. The Lone Wanderer didn't know why until he saw raiders walking out of the metro.

"Think the mole rats are done with him?" He could hear one of them ask.

"Fuck if I ca- who the fuck?" The other raider didn't get to finish statement before the mercs cut them both down.

'_Well that just stirred up a hornet's nest.'_ The Lone Wanderer thought as another raider came out to see what the commotion was about. The Talon mercs weren't able to cut that one down as she dove back into the metro, no doubt to warn the others.

"Get ready for a shit storm." One of the mercs yelled.

"Oh, you don't even know the half of it." The Lone Wanderer said as he popped up from behind his hiding spot within the diner.

"I told you he was in the diner!" One merc yelled, but they didn't have time to deal with their target as raiders started pouring out from the metro entrance.

Amata awoke to the sound of gunfire and yelling, alarmed she quickly looked around her immediate surroundings and noticed that the Lone Wanderer wasn't around. She grabbed her 10mm pistol and slung her hunting rifle over her shoulder and snuck up to the front doors. Sneaking a peek outside she was treated to quite a scene. Raiders were firing at a group of men in black armor, the black armor returned fire and all the while The Lone Wanderer were taking shots at both of them! She compared it to a classic scene from the old western movies that she watched back in the vault. Suddenly a bullet impacted near where she was bringing her back to reality she quickly ducked back inside.

"Kill them! Kill them all!" a raider shouted, a 10mm round planted itself in his head shortly afterward. The Lone Wanderer chambered another round as several bullets pounded his cover. The mercenaries of Talon Company were putting up a good fight but the raiders had an overwhelming number advantage. One merc took several bullets to the chest and fell dead.

"They got Josh!" one shouted.

"Fuck Josh! I never liked him anyway. Keep firing." Another ordered.

"How many of these fuckers are there?" another shouted over the raging gun fire.

The Lone Wanderer didn't have time or enough bullets to deal with all of them. He decided it was best to just get Amata and let these two groups handle themselves, just as he was getting ready to move he noticed movement further down the road, it was big and he wasn't sure if it was a shadow or it had black skin. It wasn't until he saw the beady white eyes did the terror of realization started sinking in. It was Grimm. The sunlight gave the Lone Wanderer more than enough light to see it in all of his terrifying horror. Long sharp horns with equally long sharp claws, the spikes on it's back were long and black lining all the way to its tail, big bulging legs pushed this killing machine onward and it was picking up speed. The sight of it was more than enough to override the fact that he was being shot at. The Lone Wanderer jumped over his cover and ran across the parking lot like a track star as bullets impacted all around him.

Amata was about to take another peek out the doors when the Lone Wanderer came crashing through them.

"What the H-" Amata exclaimed.

"No time, get ready to move, WE ARE LEAVING!" he shouted catching his breath.

"We're going out there!? While they're firing at us!" she protested.

"Not for long." He answered as he looked back out the door and waited for Grimm's arrival. It didn't take long, the raiders were the first to see him and started firing at the monstrosity the mercenaries of Talon Company had taken the position the Lone Wanderer had been inside the diner, after noticing they weren't under fire they turned to see what the raiders were firing at. Upon seeing the terror inducing Grimm they turn their guns on him. In seconds both mercenaries and raiders had become uneasy allies in the common goal of staying alive. Grimm was now in full sprint and heading towards the nearest threat the Lone Wanderer looked on as the monster burst through the side of the diner nearly gutting the entire structure. It swung its massive claws impaling one of the mercs on it.

"What the hell is that!?" Amata whisper alarmed hoping not to get the beasts attention.

"Deathclaw." He muttered, he grabbed Amata's hand and led her out the store. They stuck to the side of the building all the while Grimm was busy 'reaping' the Talon Company mercs, it gutted another and took a bite out of him before tossing him aside. The last one decided to cut his losses and run, he didn't get far as he ran into the raiders oncoming fire. With the mercs gone only the raiders remained. Grimm tore through the other end of the diner and began it's assault on the raiders. Small arms fire be damn as it didn't seem to bother Grimm as jumped on top of the first raider crushing him. Amata didn't get to see the rest of what happened as she and the Lone Wanderer ran.

AN: thanks for reading, and thanks for the support.


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